The Bonga Phase 3 development, which is expected to have a peak production capacity of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent, is the expansion of the Bonga Main development.
Shell upstream international director Andrew Brown said: "This new start up is another important milestone for Bonga, adding valuable new production to this major facility."
Located in OML 118 and in water depths of more than 1,000m, the Bonga project started oil and gas production in 2005 and has produced over 600 million barrels of oil to date.
The Nigerian National Petroleum holds the lease for OML 118 while SNEPCo operates the Bonga project with 55% stake.
The produced oil will be transported to the Bonga floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility through existing pipelines. The FPSO is designed to have capacity of more than 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day.
Under a production sharing contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum, the Bonga project is also owned by Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria with 20% stake, Total E&P Nigeria with 12.5% interest and Nigerian Agip Exploration with 12.5%.
In August 2014, Shell started oil production from the Bonga North West deep-water development, which is an extension to the Bonga field.
At peak, the Bonga North-West is anticipated to production capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Image: The Bonga floating production, storage and offloading vessel at the AMEC yard in Howdon. Photo: courtesy of Vin Mullen.
